Riots are sweeping Europe and the age of rage continues to intensify as the financial terrorists who caused the economic collapse now meter out the punishment for their own wrongdoing. Britain, Italy, Russia, and Greece are all gripped with unrest as 2011 shapes up to be the year of civil disobedience.

– Anti-austerity riots in Athens have sent Christmas shoppers “fleeing in panic” as Greeks demonstrated against a fresh round of public sector pay cuts.

In one incident, MP Kostis Hatzidakis was left bloodied and bruised after being chased and beaten by dozens of protesters.

– In Russia, anti-government protesters demonstrated at two separate rallies in Moscow, calling for the resignation of Vladimir Putin and greater rights for minorities and the disenfranchised.

This fresh round of civil unrest follows riots that crippled France in October and other violent clashes around Europe. Although the riots are not all specifically related to the same issue, they are feeding into a general mood of mass resentment against the ruling elite. Indeed, it seems that America is one of the few major countries not to have been hit by mass rioting.

As historian Simon Schama, himself an establishment figure, has noted, such scenes will prompt the ruling elite to take an even more brutally authoritarian turn in a bid to quell mass unrest.

We are witnessing the beginnings of a new class warfare now that the “population…can no longer be cajoled into believing sacrifices to further enrich the über-rich are in the best interest of their nation,” according to Gerald Celente.

As economic conditions continue to deteriorate in Europe and the U.S., the uprisings will grow larger, more frequent, more organized and more ferocious. In response, government crackdowns will be harsher and more violent. As the New Year unfolds, the stage is set for incendiary acts that will be committed by one side or the other, escalating the conflict into prolonged battles.

Governments will declare that hooligans, anarchists, militants and foreign agents are responsible for the unrest, and the press will swear to it. What will be painted as assaults on capitalism and the free enterprise system could more accurately be described as acts of self defense; a battle between the growing number of “have nots” vs. the “haves” that keep taking even more than they had before.

2011 will be characterized even more so than 2010 as a year of tension and unrest. With governments now openly mulling whether to ban protests altogether, and in doing so declaring de facto martial law, flashpoints will be plentiful and the masses will only become more enraged as not only their money but also their political freedoms are swiped from under their noses.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.